Remote medical diagnosis techniques to provide disease diagnosis services using a telecommunication network such as the internet by a physically distant medical doctor (hereinafter, referred to as “remote doctor”) are well known in related art and, for instance, such remote medical diagnosis techniques generally convert various information such as blood pressure, pulse, image information, etc. of a patient into digital signals and transmit the digital signals to a remote doctor, so as to provide a remote medical diagnosis service.
More particularly, conventionally known remote diagnosis technologies may include, for example: a remote medical diagnostic method that measures blood pressure and/or pulse of a patient, stores results thereof in a storage device, and monitors the results at a remote location through a telecommunication system; a remote medical diagnostic method that monitors image information obtained from computerized axial tomography (CAT) and/or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) test of a patient and diagnoses the patient based on the monitored results by a remote doctor; a remote medical diagnostic method that includes frequency modulation (FM) of X-ray image and transportation thereof to a distant location (such as a remote server); a medical diagnostic method that checks the health condition of a patient daily using a home healthcare system and provides checked results to a storage device at a long distance or a remote doctor through a telecommunication network; a remote medical diagnostic method that measures body temperature, blood pressure, pulse, etc. of a patient, and stores or transports the measured results to a remote server; a remote medical diagnostic method that includes transmission of bio-signals of a patient to a remote doctor; a remote medical diagnostic method that a patient in home directly uses an electronic stethoscope so as to enable a remote doctor to perform auscultation of the patient; and a remote medical diagnostic method that uses a health care and measurement device to input ID of a patient and determine health condition of the patient, checks measured blood pressure, pulse, body weight, electrocardiogram (ECG), etc., transmits the determined data to the foregoing health care and measurement device via a telecommunication network, and receives diagnosis and final results thereof.
In general, a remote medical diagnostic method has been accomplished by providing message, audio or video-based medical consultant service of a medical doctor to a patient through a telecommunication network such as the internet or remotely instructing procedures for use of a medical examination device to a patient and, in this case, a medical doctor conducts measurement and analysis of data in the medical examination device in real-time and remotely diagnoses or, after remotely storing medical data measured by the medical examination device in a hospital server, checks and/or analyzes the stored data, and notifies the patient of diagnosis results.
However, the foregoing remote medical diagnostic methods need complicated connection of individual medical apparatuses via input/output terminals of computers in order to conduct multiple diagnoses, which are in turn tangled with existing mouse and keyboard to form a very complex user interface that is too difficult to be used by a patient. Therefore, in order to commercially and effectively use such remote medical diagnosis techniques, a novel medical examination apparatus providing a simple user interface capable of being easily used by a patient at home is strongly required. Briefly, the foregoing conventional remote medical diagnostic method was performed by separately connecting a plurality of medical devices such as a stethoscope, a thermometer, an imaging sensor, a ultrasound tester, a blood analyzer, etc. to input/output terminals of a user computer in order to use the same. Also, after using the medical devices, these should be removed from the input/output terminals and separately kept in alternative places, thus being troublesome in use. Otherwise, if the medical devices are left without maintenance, these are tangled with existing mouse and/or keyboard, thus causing a messy environment around the computer and causing a user inconvenience. As a result, remote medical diagnosis environments may be more complicated and difficult to use. Accordingly, there is still a requirement for development of more improved remote medical diagnostic devices to provide an effective user interface enabling convenient and simple use of multiple medical examination apparatuses by a user.